I bought a 32 tip natural gas burner since I already have natural gas piped out to the balcony. Any suggestions for hooking it up and mounting it? I was thinking about getting some of that metal shelving and building a brew stand. I don't really want to spend a ton of money or time on this. I was also thinking about having a longer flexible gas hose, and some type of mount where it hooks in, so I can move the burner from under my brew kettle to my HLT, if I want to heat up mash water in a hurry. (Right now I heat it over night with an electric bucket heater on a timer.)

Any suggestions are welcome, please keep in mind that I don't want to spend a lot of time or money on this.

Now, mind you, I've since sold this burner and gone to the Blichmann Top Tier burner.

The wok burner worked fine, but I found that I couldn't run it at a low pressure setting, as the flame would bur from the back of each jet instead of the tip, and would put out a sooty flame unless I ran it closer to wide open.

I attached mine to the gas supply with one of those steel flexible lines designed for a gas stove. Like this:

In my area, a more flexible rubber hose for the gas line wouldn't meet code.

With a burner that size I would think that you would need at least 3/4" pipe if it is 25' from the meter and 1" if it is any further, if you can't do that then you can start plunging jets, each jet should use about 5 CFH ie if you have 1/2" pipe that is 20' long with no bends then you would need to plug about half the jets(16) but you should really consult a licensed plumber to be sure http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/natural-gas-pipe-sizing-d_826.html

I'd say that the tips of the burners are maybe 6 inches below the bottom of the kettle.

Sorry I don't have a top view.

There are some pieces of 1/2 inch steel square stock formed into a square that is 45 degrees off from the stand. They were drilled and and fastened to the burner stand with countersunk machine screws. The stand it self was bolted together with 1/4-20 hardware. Stand material came from Lowes.

Picture a square on top of another square, with the corners of the top square in the center of the side of the bottom square.

My supply line is 1/2 inch black pipe from the furnace which is about 20 feet away.

My burner was a 23 jet model, smaller than yours. I think it was rated at 90,000 BTU per hour. I figure I was running it at maybe 60,000 BTU/hr

I never needed to open the valve more than 2/3 of the way to get a good flame.

Paul, if you could get a good blue flame and vigorous boil with the valve only two-thirds open, I don't think you had a problem with too small a supply line. As you suggest, it's more that the wok burners don't do such a good job at low flame. They're designed to be run nearly wide open.

Oh, one thing that isn't shown is the piece of sheet metal bolted to the front of the stand. (you can kinda see the ones on either side.)

After using the burner a couple of times, I added the front piece to deflect heat, so I could stand closer. Back is totally open. The sheet metal goes from the top edge down to about 1 inch or so up from the bottom. Enough clearance to be able to get a butane flamethrower in there to light the burner.

Yeah, Bill, my 1/2 inch supply line did the job just fine. I did run the burner with the valve all the way open a few times when I was testing it. So, while I really don't know what the actual gas pressure is, it's more than enough. Even if the furnace kicked on while I had the burner running, both operated very well.

I completely understand the bigger is better philosophy but it has failed me in the past so some times you just have to look at what is really needed. Burner sizing is a little confusing with all the turkey fryers saying 170,000 BTUH but in realty they are not, as most come with 10 PSI (67,000 BTUH) regulators. They also are not very efficient as they wast most of the heat by blowing it out the sides of the stand. I figure that they are at most 20% - 40% efficient. So that 170,000 BTUH setup is delivering more like ~20,000 BTUH to the wert which is more than enough power and most of the time they are turned down. The goal is to boil off 10% -15% or your wert so on a 12 gallon finished batch you need 1.2 gal - 1.8gal and it takes about 8300 BTU to boil off 1 gal so you only need at most 15,000 BTUH to the wert (I rounded a lot). The low presher NG burners are on the higher side of efficiency so I would suggest that 40,000 - 60,000 BTUH is enough power for your size batch. Plugging half the jets, if it is really 160,00 BTUH would only take you down to 80,000 BTUH still more than enough power.

On my 15.5 gal convert keg system I have a 5500 W (18700 BTUH)electric heating element and it will boil off a bit over 2 gal/hrs at full bore

On my gas stove it has a 15,000 BTUH rating and I have measured the actual output to my brew kettle at 8,300 BTUH and it boils off at 1 gal/hrs

As to pipe size it is probably the same size as the outlet on your deck, both 3/8" and 1/2" are usual sizes for grills and i would think that's what it is there for. Dave http://home.earthlink.net/~davesbrewing/

I have about a 40 ft. run of half-inch natural gas pipe to my brewing location (it was installed by the former owner for a barbecue grill), and I find it adequate but not ideal for my three-burner stand. I can run one burner at full output with no problem, but the pressure is somewhat lower (although still usable) when running two burners at once. There's no way I could run three burners at the same time, but then again there is no need to. If I were designing the supply line for a new installation I would plumb it with 3/4 in. pipe.

Dave, why not get a 100 lb. propane cylinder for those multiple burners? You won't have to refill as often, and the pressure drop at the cylinder, which can cause icing problems, will be less. The only drawback of a 100 lb. cylinder is that it must remain upright during transporting, which likely means your gas supplier will have to deliver. That's not a problem in many outer suburban and rural areas. I suspect they will lease and exchange cylinders quite inexpensively.

My camp is heated with 100 pounders (24 gallons), at least until tomorrow when I am supposed to get a 100 gallon "Pig." Right now they cost $71 delivered.

Smaller tanks can ice up quickly and lose pressure. The two barrel system came set up for propane and we had to immerse the 20 pounders in warm water to maintain pressure. It was a big pain. We now use natural gas.

I fired the burner up last night for a test run because i want to deep fry a turkey today for Xmas. The results were less than stellar--it took 52 minutes to heat 7 gallons of water from 60 up to boiling. The flame was more yellow than blue, and left quite a bit of soot. I'll describe my set up, and maybe you guys can offer suggestions to increase the amount of heat that this thing applies to whatever is in my pot (oil, water, or wort).

I used a temporary set up until I can get my stand together. I just set the burner on my stone tile balcony floor, and arranged three 8" tall cinder blocks around it in a triangular pattern. There were gaps in the corners of the triangle to let air in. I set the pot on top of the cinder blocks--there was about 6 inches of space between the top of the burner tips to the bottom of the pot. I didn't run the gas wide open, because the flames were shooting out around the outside of the pot; I adjusted it down until they were mostly contained under the pot. As I mentioned above, it took for ever to get up to boiling, and there is a coating of soot on the pot and cinder blocks, a problem I never had with my propane burner.

Do I need more room for air to get to the burner? Will it work better when I use my larger diameter brew pot, so I can run it higher without flames coming out around the pot? Should I actually run it lower, for more efficient heat?

I don't think it is going to work very well sitting on the "floor". You will need an open space underneath to allow the air to flow up and through the burner. Try setting the burner up on the edges of two of your 8" cinder blocks, or even four, arranged so the holes in the cinder block allow the air to flow in the the center (under the burner).

I have this exact same burner and I am quite happy with it on natural gas. From the brass burner tips to the bottom of my boil pot is 5 1/2". I get no soot.

Do not set a pot with five gallons of peanut oil on top of cinder blocks stacked on end (their weakest axis). Cinder blocks do not do well in hot environments. They crack and fail w2hen exposed to fire...which could dump your 400 degree peanut oil into the fire...

Ric, when you say on end, how do you mean? The blocks are 16X8X6. I have the long end on the floor, and the 8 inch end on the vertical axis. Is this the weakest axis? I believe this is how they are stacked when used as building materials--should be the safest this way, no?

I think I might end up using my propane burner for safety anyway.

Also, while I will take your advice and have space under the burner--it seemed to work fine on the floor (photo above) with no cinder blocks around it, or kettle above it--is that because it's drawing air in from the sides?

The short answer, Kevin, is yes, when there is no pot and no windscreen it is better able to pull in air from the sides. I agree with Ric that you should build a stand that provides open space underneath the burner. It will work more efficiently with a blue flame that produces little or no soot.

I just ran through some of the BTU numbers and the natural gas flow required to get them. David Star's post above is right on the money. My burner shown above is the 90,000 BTU model. If I recall correctly (which is getting to be more and more difficult...) that was the largest burner I thought I could run off of the piping to my gas dryer and my 25' of hose.

I ran another test on the burner--this time I had it sitting on a wire shelf so it was open to airflow from the bottom. I also only used 2 cinder blocks to sit the kettle on, so it was open on two sides. The flames seemed more blue at the start, but turned yellow at some point during the test. I couldn't tell if they were producing more soot, because I used the same kettle, without removing the previous soot. I was more interested in boil time than the soot, but in hindsight, I should have started with a clean kettle.

This time it took 43 minutes to get 7 gallons from 61F to boiling. 9 minutes less--an almost 20% improvement. I have a small fan I can hang under the burner, blowing air up into it. Should this help, or is it overkill?

With out getting into extreme detail the way a gas jet burner works is that the fuel gas leaves an orifice at a specific velocity which creates a partial vacuum that pules in air for combustion if the velocity is high enough then the Stoichiometricly correct amount of air is used and you get complete combustion so if you don't have enough fuel flow then it won't burn correctly ie you would have soot from unburnt hydrocarbon sticking to your pot . from the pictures you have posted I would say that you need to increase your fuel flow rate to each individual jet . If you look at Ric Heinz's burner you see that it is all blue flame witch is essential for it to work properly The fan would help if it were ducted directly to each air inlet on each burner jet and it's flow rate were correctly balanced with fuel flow rate If your burner were working to its full capacity it might take about a half hour to go from 61F to boiling as the math is real ugly that's just a guess As to the time you have posted it is not much better than my kitchen stove so I would say some thing is wrong with your setup You might find that if you plug some jets your time to boil will be reduced because you are burning the gas instead of have it stick to the bottom your pot and creating CO Dave

The wok burner I used to use would get a yellow flame and get sooty when the gas pressure was turned down too low. When operating correctly, the flame is out at the tip of each jet, pulling in air thru the little round holes at the base of each jet. When the pressure would be turned down too low, the flame would burn at the back of each jet, where the gas exits the casting and enters the jet. Not enough air mixes in, and the flame gets yellow and sooty

When the valve would be more fully opened the burner worked well. The wok burner isn't designed to run on low pressure. In other words, it runs wide open, not at a simmer

Thanks for all your help guys--I think I have it worked out. I did another couple tests. On the first test, I used a fresh kettle on the old setup. I only got yellow flame on the tips adjacent to the cinder blocks, and soot spots under these yellow flames. That told me that the gas pressure wasn't too low, just that those jets weren't getting enough air.

On the second test, I used an iron stand open to all sides. Blue flame, no soot, and 32 minutes for 7 gallons to go from 61F to boiling. No need to plug jets. I think I can get even better performance than this, it was pretty windy tonight, the flame was blowing around quite a bit, plus the furnace kicked on about halfway through the test, meaning a drop in gas pressure to the burner. Yes, we use a furnace here occasionally in Southern California, it's supposed to drop into the high 40s tonight.

I took a jet off and went to the local Ace hardware (rare these days) and matched up with some plugs. It is a metric size, I want to say 7mm, but not sure. Ace had one of those handy aluminum thread matching boards. They are actually hollow set screws.

If you can set it low enough to have a controlled boil then it sounds like you have it all ironed out.

I opted to have a removeable burner. I have a cross piece on the stand that I welded on some metal tabs that locate the burner and on one of the legs I welded on another piece that holds the gas pipe securely. This way, there is no need for any kind of disconnect that may cause a bottleneck in the line. The hose is connected to the gas pipe near my garage heater, with its own shut off and neither end ever needs to be removed. Probably not to code, but I feel its safe as the gas is only on during a brew session. BTW, the hose is a cheap air hose connected with barbs, that I can replace whenever needed cheaply.

Thanks for the offer on the hose. I'm using the 3/8" because I already had the grill quick disconnect on the house, and this hose has that built in.

I think I'm good to go with the current setup--I brewed this past Sunday and everything worked out really well. There was a little bit of soot on the kettle, I think it occurred when I turned the burners all the way down because the wort was boiling too early. ( I batch sparge in 3 batches, and turned on the burner at the end of the second batch--it was boiling before I started the third batch).

No boilovers, nice roiling boil with the valve just past half way open--still a good blue flame. I suppose I could plug some jets and run it more wide open, but I'm pretty happy with the way it is.

The good news is that the wok burners are quite efficient when run nearly wide open; however, they aren't designed for simmering.

I wish they still made the Superb burner I have under my mash tun. It's rated at 35,000 BTUs, but that seems conservative. It will work for either propane or natural gas (minus the regulator and with a different orifice) and will boil 5 gallons easily and even 10 gallons if you're willing to be patient (about 40 minutes). But the best thing about it is that it will run at a simmer without any problem. It allows me to directly heat my mash for steps with occasional stirring to prevent scorching (it also helps to keep the mash a little on the thin side).

I've had the same 32 tip burners running off the standard bbq grill flexible hose for a couple years now. It works but I can tell at times the gas supply is insufficient and wish I had bought the 23 tip burner the first time. I just ordered a couple on line really cheap. At work we just installed 2 more pizza ovens for a total of 6. Each one @125000btu's for a total draw of 750000 btu's before you add in the water heater and HVAC. Had lots of issues untill we got the meter changed as it was the choke point. You should see the size of the new million btu meter!